Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c11: Chapter VIII: Appearance of Buddha

Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c11

Language
English

Contents

Chapter VIII: Appearance of Buddha

v1.c11.2

Far away from the din and bustle of the chief cities of Rājagṛha and Śrāvastī, Kauśāmbī and Ujjeni appeared in a rather secluded place on the borders of Nepal (Himavantapasse, *Dīgha*, I, 92) amidst the hills at Kapilavastu¹ the lonely figure of Siddhārtha Gautama, the only son of the chieftain of the Śākya clan—a clan too proud of their birth and zealous about their purity of descent.² This gifted son of the Śākyas in accordance

v1.c11.3

¹ A place subject to the authority of the king of Kosala. See *Jātaka*, IV, 145; *Mahāvastu*, II, p. 199.

v1.c11.4

² They are often criticised as marrying their own sisters for maintaining the purity of blood. See *Jātaka*, V, 413; *Dīgha* I, p. 92; *Mahāvastu*, I, p. 351, Beal, *Romantic Legend of Śākya Buddha*, p. 22. *Mahāvastu*, I, p. 348, Beal, *op cit.*, p. 23. *Mahāvaṃsa*, II, 16-24 gives the following lineage:

v1.c11.5

*Mahāsammata* Several successors of Okkākavaṃsa (cf. *Dīgha*, I, 92).

v1.c11.7.1

Jayasena | Devadahasakka of Devadaha --- | --- Sihahanu (=Kaccānā) Yasodharā | Añjana (=Yasodharā) Kaccānā Suddhodano and his 4 brothers (=Māyā and Pajāpati) and two sisters Amitā & Pamitā | Māyā Pajāpati Daṇḍapāṇi Suppabuddha (=Amitā) Siddhārtha | Bhaddakaccānā Devadatta Rāhula (=Bhaddakaccānā) | with the traditional custom acquired the arts that behoved the sons of the nobility of the clans, and secured for him the due recognition as a prince of physical valour and prowess. He was given in marriage to the daughter of another chieftain of the same clan. He lived with her a few years of ease and luxury and had a son named Rāhula. During the adolescence period of Siddhārtha, the Śākyas, it seems, were passing through peaceful times, living on their own agricultural produce, the troubles having been encountered by them a few years later after the retirement of Siddhārtha.¹ It is not unoften the case in India or elsewhere that all the luxuries of the world cannot bring peace of mind to a few, the giants among men, who feel an inward impulse to cast away to winds the things that give pleasure to the average mind and hanker after the unknown and the unknowable. Prince Siddhārtha was one of these few. He preferred to eschew his dear wife and newly born babe, his kingly pomp and power to embrace the lonely life of a recluse, living on fruits or the gifts of charitably disposed persons.

v1.c11.7.2

Inspite of all the remonstrances and reasonings of his father's messengers, he refused to return to home life.² The tradition says that he took to this course when he was only twentynine, and for six years he roamed about, sitting at the feet of one teacher or another, and imbibing from them all that he could gather. It is said, that he left the palace at the dead of night, crossed the territories of the Śākyas, the Koliyas and the Mallas and reached the Anuvaineya town of the Maineyas at dawn.¹ He visited the hermitages of a Śākyan Brāhmaṇī, of a female ascetic Padmā also a Brāhmaṇī, of Brahmarṣi Raivata, and of Rājaka, son of Daṭṛma a daṇḍika.² Then he reached the city of Vaiśālī, in the suburb of which was situated the hermitage of Arāḍa Kālāma (= Pāli Ārāḍa Kālāma). He joined the band of disciples whose number was three hundred at the time and within a short time, by the application of his strong will (*chanda*), energy (*vīrya*), self-recollectedness (*smṛti*), meditation (*samādhi*) and intellection (*prajñā*), he attained the *ākiñcanyāyatana* stage, which, in the Buddhist books, is placed in the Arūpaloka and counted as the last but one (i.e. seventh) *samāpatti* leading to *Nirvāṇa*.³ In this stage also he was unable to visualize the Truth—the Reality, the end of misery. He then left Vaiśālī, came to Rājagṛha and stopped all alone at the Pāṇḍava hill.

v1.c11.7.3

On the following morning donning on his yellow robe and taking his bowl, he entered Rājagṛha by the Tapoda gate for begging alms. Here at his residence on the Pāṇḍava hill, he was met by his old friend king Bimbisāra, who in age was senior to Gautama by five years.⁴ Politely rejecting the offer of Bimbisāra of sharing his kingdom with him, the ascetic Gautama paid a visit to the Rudraka Rāmaputra’s hermitage in the outskirts of Rājagṛha.¹ On enquiry he learnt that Rudraka could rise to the eighth samāpatti, *Naivasamjñānāsamjñāyatana*, the one higher than that reached by Arāḍa Kālāma, but it was still an attainment confined to the constituted world² (*arūpa*) and not transcendental (*lokottara*) leading to peace and rest, the end of misery, the ultimate Nirvāṇa. Impressed by his extraordinary ability in attaining the *Naivasamjñānāsamjñāyatana* stage within a comparatively short time and little exertion, five Brāhmaṇa followers of Rudraka preferred to follow Gautama. With them he went to Gayā and stopped at the Gayāśīrṣa hill.³ While dwelling here it struck him that as with two pieces of wet wood one cannot produce fire however briskly he may rub them, so also with mind saturated with *kāma* (desires) one cannot realize the highest truth however severe he may be in self-mortifications.⁴ On self-examination he found that his mind was free from *kāma*.

v1.c11.7.4

He then proceeded to Uruvilva-Senāpatigrāma, and was much pleased at the sight of the river Nairañjana with water reaching the edge of the banks covered by shrubs and trees and used as a pasture for the cattle. He observed that he was born at a time when the five kinds of wrong views (*pañcakaṣāya*)⁵ were prevalent. The people of his time were obsessed with the notion of the existence of soul, believed in the attainment of purity by means of physical tortures, restriction of food, utterance of mantras, or salutation of the gods and other sacred objects, and sought for heaven in the next life by ritualistic practices, and so forth. With a view to convince the world that the severest ascetic practices were of no avail, he for six years went through all the unthinkable physical tortures known as *duṣkaracaryās*¹ of the Bodhisattva. He then decided to take food and make his body strong in order to be able to practise the dhyānas, of which he had already a foretaste while he was only a boy,² and which he believed would lead him to Nirvāṇa. For changing his method, he was deserted by his five Brāhmaṇa followers who went away to Benares to continue their rigorous ascetic practices. He accepted the food offered by Sujātā and took his seat under the Bodhi tree to try his own method.

v1.c11.7.5

He entered into the dhyānas one by one, rising to the fourth³ when he acquired the six super-natural powers,⁴ the knowledge of the destruction of his impurities (*āsravakṣayaññāna*), of the causal chain leading to birth and misery in this world,⁵ and of the four *āryasatyas*.⁶ By a momentary *dṛṣṭi*., *āyuk*.) or the sixty-two wrong views like *nityam astiti nāstiti tathāsti nāsti* prevailed.**

v1.c11.8

¹ We have accounts of two of their feuds. One was with the Koliyas, for the right of drawing water from the river Rohiṇī. In this feud Buddha intervened and brought about an amicable settlement (*Jātaka*, V, 413). The other was with Viḍuḍabha, who practically exterminated the Śākyas for giving the slave-girl Vāsabhakhattiyā, his mother, in marriage to his father king Pasenadi of Kosala and for insulting him when he paid his first visit to Kapilavatthu (*Jātaka*, IV, 145 f.).

v1.c11.9

² For details, see Beal *op cit*. pp. 163-8.

v1.c11.10

¹ *Mahāvastu*, II, p. 195 f. mentions only the hermitage of Vasiṣṭha; *Lalita Vistara*, p. 225: बोधिसत्त्वोऽतिक्रम्य शाक्यानतिक्रम्य कोलियानतिक्रम्य मल्लानामनेयामनुवैनये निगमे षट्‌सु योजनेषु तत्र बोधिसत्त्वस्य रात्रिप्रभातोऽभूत्‌।

v1.c11.11

² *Lalita Vistara*, p. 238.

v1.c11.12

³ *Lal. Vis.*, pp. 238-9; according to Arāḍa, physical and mental discipline lead to *ākiñcanyāyatana* stage which is identical with *Nirvāṇa*. See Beal, *op. cit.*, p. 172.

v1.c11.13

⁴ Beal, *op. cit.*, p. 177 f.; *Mahāvaṃsa*, II, 26.

v1.c11.14

¹ *Lal Vis.*, p. 243.

v1.c11.15

² *Lal. Vis.*, p. 244. संस्कृतानां सास्रवां सोपादानानां ध्यानसमाधिमपत्तौनां दोषः

v1.c11.16

³ In the *Lalita Vistara* (pp. 248 ff.) a full account is given of his rigorous ascetic practices, cf. *Majjhima Nikāya*, pp. 77 ff. The comparison will also show the relation between the Pāli and Sanskrit versions of the Tripiṭaka.

v1.c11.17

⁴ Cf. Beal, *op cit*, p. 185.

v1.c11.18

⁵ *Lal Vis.*, p. 248. See *Aspects*, p. 70: "Śākyamuni came into existence when one of the five Kaṣāyas (Kalpakaṣāya, sattvak, kleśak,

v1.c11.19

¹ *Majjhima*, I, pp 81, 246; *Mahāvastu*, III, p 133; *Milinda-pañha*, p. 284. ² *Lal. Vis.*, p. 263: यदहं पितुरुद्याने...स बोधिरिति। Cf *Mahāvastu*, II, p. 144. ³ *Ibid.*, p.

v1.c11.20

³⁴³ For the four dhyānas, see *infra*. ⁴ *Ibid.*, pp. 344-5. For the abhijñās, see *infra*. ⁵ *Ibid.*, pp. 346-350. For details of the Pratītyasamutpāda, see *infra*. ⁶ See *Aspects*, p.

v1.c11.21

²⁰⁶ The four āryasatyas are expanded thus in the *Lal. Vis.*, pp. 348-9:
(i) आसवः आसवसमुदयः, आसवनिरोधः, आसवनिरोधगामिनी प्रतिपत् [ आसव = काम, भव, अविद्या, दृष्टि ]

v1.c11.22

flash of the light of knowledge (*ekacittakṣaṇasamāyuktayā*),¹ he realised the Bodhi. The thirst for worldly objects, wrong views, impurities, hindrances, self-conceit were all dispelled in him and he now fully realised the sameness of all things (*dharmatathatā*),² the limit of existences (*bhūtakoṭi*),³ the universe (*dharmadhātu*) as also its beings, some of which proceeding along the right path (*samyaktvaniyata*), some along the wrong (*mithyātvaniyata*) and some still wavering between right and wrong (*aniyata*).⁴ Being established in the *Tathāgatagarbha*—the seat of all Tathāgatas, he opened the gates to the haven of *Nirvāṇa*, the city of *Sarvajñatā* (omniscience) for all those who were still in fetters of ignorance and impurities. He became a lotus grown in the tank of knowledge, unaffected by the eight *lokadharmas*.⁵ He was filled with compassion which helped the rapid growth of the seeds of *kuśalamūlas*, the sprouts of *śraddhā* (faith) and lastly he became the distributor of the fruits of *vimukti* (emancipation).⁶

v1.c11.23

¹ Cf. *Asia Major*, II 2 & 3 These are terms common in Mahāyānism and rarely found in Hinayāna texts. 4 *Lal Vis*, pp. 351, 400; cf. *Laṅkāvatāra* 5 The eight are *lābhe alābho yaso ayaso pasaṃsā nindā sukhaṃ dukkhaṃ* 6 *Lal Vis*, pp 351-2

v1.c11.24

(ii) अविद्या, अविद्यासमुदयः, अविद्यानिरोधः, अविद्यागामिनी प्रतिपत्
(iii) संस्काराः, संस्कारसमुदयः, संस्कारनिरोधः, संस्कारनिरोधगामिनी प्रतिपत् and so on with the other items of the formula of the law of causation, and lastly
(iv) मरणं, मरणसमुदयः, मरणनिरोधः, मरणनिरोधगामिनी प्रतिपत्।

v1.c11.25

From the above, it is evident that the *āryasatyas* indicate the four aspects of a thing, viz., the thing, its origin, its decay and the way to its decay, i.e., दुःखं, दुःखसमुदयः, दुःखनिरोधः, दुःखनिरोधगामिनी प्रतिपत्।

v1.c11.26

After achieving his object, for seven days he entered into the *Prityābhāravyūha-samādhi*,¹ enjoying the bliss of Nirvāṇa. In the second week he walked to and fro, cogitating over all the worlds (*trisāhasramahāsāhasralokadhātu*), in the third, he fixed his gaze on the Bodhi tree, thinking all the while that he had put an end to the beginningless birth, old age and death, and in the fourth he walked again to and fro, this time his object of thought being the area between the eastern and the western ocean,² the fifth week, a week of great cold and wind, he spent in the palace of Mucilinda Nāga, the sixth at the foot of Nyagrodha tree of Ajapāla, and the seventh at the foot of Tārāyaṇa tree, when he came across the two traders of Uttarāpatha,³ Trapusa and Bhallika and made them his first lay disciples.⁴

v1.c11.27

¹ *Lal. Vis.* p. 379.

v1.c11.28

² *Ibid.* p. 377

v1.c11.29

³ In the *Mahāvastu* (III, pp. 303, 310, 313) it is stated that they were travelling with a caravan along the trade-route from Dakṣiṇapatha to Ukkala a town of Uttarapatha in the kingdom of Gandhāra. *Uttarāpathe Ukkalaṃ nāmādhiṣṭhānam ... Tehi dāni yathā Keśasthālī nāma adhiṣṭhāno tahim keśa-stūpaṃ kārāpitam Bālukkho nāma nagaraṃ tahim nakha-stūpaṃ kārāpitam. Trapusabhallikānāṃ Śilukṣa nāma nigama āvāsitānām. adyāpi Gandhāra-rājye adhiṣṭhānam Śilānāmena jñāyati.* Cf. Beal, *op. cit.* p. 239.

v1.c11.30

⁴ *Lal. Vis.*, pp. 392, 395; Beal, *op. cit.* pp. 241 f.

v1.c11.31

Their conversion at Uruvela was later on commemorated by the erection of stūpas in their native villages in Gandhāra.

v1.c11.32

There has been a great difference of opinion with regard to the identification of Ukkala and the birth-place of Trapusa and Bhallika. Though the phonetic similarity between Utkala (Orissa) and Ukkala is very great and the identification of Ukkala with Orissa is alluring, yet in view of the evidence supplied by the *Mahāvastu* and the *Lalitavistara* and by Yuan Chwang, Ukkala should be identified with a place in Gandhāra. Yuan Chwang (Watters, I, pp. 111-113) noticed the remains of two of the stūpas mentioned above in the course of his journey from Balkh to Bamian.

v1.c11.33.1

He was now deliberating within himself whether it would be proper for him to preach a doctrine which was so deep and subtle, inexpressible, unconstituted, signless and tranquil, beyond the range of the organs of sense, or of words and discussions, unsuited for giving or taking or communicating, and realisable only by the wise within himself, and whether it would not be on his part a sheer waste of energy to attempt to preach such a doctrine to the uninitiated.¹ In the Pāli and some of the Sanskrit texts² attempt has been made to explain this unwillingness to preach the doctrine on the part of Buddha as due to the want of suitable men able to comprehend his teaching, and that it was only when Brahmā pointed out there were some whose eyes of knowledge were covered by slight impurities, that Buddha changed his mind and decided to preach the new Truth. This explanation seems to us to be more or less gratuitous, for it is not probable that Buddha who became a *sarvajña* (omniscient) could have required Brahmā's intervention for ascertaining that there were some suitable hearers. The plausible explanation is that the truth visualised by Buddha is beyond concept (*avyākṛta*), and as such it could not be imparted to others through words.

v1.c11.33.2

It is for this reason that we read often in the Pāli books that Buddha advised people to follow the path chalked out by him leading to Nirvāṇa and not to ask him for an exposition of the truth which is *avyākṛta*.³ Lastly, when he decided to preach the doctrine, he determined that he would speak about the Path only and not about what is Nirvāṇa or the highest Truth. For explaining his Path too, he sought for people who were of *samyaktvaniyatarāśi* i.e. who were possessed of such merits as would lead them to the realisation of the Truth.¹ Scanning the world for such persons, he found out that of the persons who could quickly comprehend his truth, his two teachers, Arāḍa and Rudraka, were dead, and his five companions of asceticism were then dwelling at Ṛṣipatana-mṛgadāya² on the outskirts of Benares. For imparting his teaching to his quondam companions he started for Benares, meeting on his way the Ājīvaka ascetic, Upaka. He stopped at Gayā in the house of Sudarśana Nāgarāja, and then crossing Rohitavastu, Uruvilva, Aṇāla, Sārathipura,³ reached the banks of the Ganges. On the refusal of the ferryman to take him across the river without *tarpaṇya* (ferry-hire),⁴ he flew over it and reached the other shore, and arrived at Benares. He approached the five ascetics, who, inspite of their plan not to show him any respect, yielded to his sublime look and ultimately listened to his discourses.

v1.c11.33.3

He delivered his first discourse known as *Dharmacakra*, in which he referred to the two extreme practices, followed hitherto, viz., the life of ease and that of extreme asceticism, the former probably referring to the life led by Brāhmaṇas and Kṣatriyas who lived in towns and villages and performed elaborate sacrifices, and the latter to that of the ascetics living in the forests and given to severe self-mortifications.¹ He then explained the four Āryasatyas, or the four-fold method of examination of the things of the world,² by means of which, he said he was able to comprehend the causal genesis of things, consisting of three sections and twelve terms.³ It was this causal genesis that convinced him of the impermanent nature of things, and of the non-existence of a doer or a feeler, in other words, the non-existence of a self (ātma = pudgala) or of a transmigrator (saṅkramaka),⁴ and of action, good or bad. He found out that tṛṣṇā (desire) was the root of sufferings, and aṣṭāṅgikamārga the means to their cessation. He traced the origin of avidyā to careless mental constructions (saṅkalpajanitena ayonisena bhavate avidyā). Further, he was convinced that skandhas, āyatanas and dhātus do not make a Buddha and that avidyā owes its origin to mental constructions vikalpa) on the cessation of which it disappears and along with it all forms of existence. As he had found out this without the help of a teacher he was a Svayambhū (self-awakened).

v1.c11.33.4

On hearing this discourse, Ājñātakaunḍinya, spiritually the most advanced of the five, realised that everything including the three ratnas, Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha or the Brahmaloka were mere relative words, and had no existence in reality.'

v1.c11.34

¹ *Lal Vis.*, pp. 380-1.

v1.c11.35

² See *Aspects*, pp 70-1.

v1.c11.36

³ Cf. *Majjhima*, I, p. 431: Na h'etam Māluṅkyaputta atthasaṃhitaṃ n'ādibrahmacariyikaṃ, na nibbidāya. ... na nibbānāya saṃvattati, tasmā taṃ mayā abyākatam Kiñ ca Māluṅkyaputta mayā byākatam: Idaṃ dukkhaṃ ti, etc.

v1.c11.37

¹ *Lal. Vis.*, p. 400, also p. 351; *Kośa*, ch. VI, cf. *Asia Major* (Vasumitra's Treatise), II, pp 27, 40, 45, 50. This relates to the various gotras, see *Aspects*, etc. pp. 84-87.

v1.c11.38

² Mod. Sārnāth.

v1.c11.39

³ *Lal. Vis.*, p 406. In the *Mahāvastu* (III, pp. 324-329), the tradition is as follows: Leaving Uruvilva, he passed through Gayā, Aparagayā and reached Vāśālā where he was invited to a meal by a *bahuṅka* Brāhmaṇa to whom he pointed out as to what makes a true Brāhmaṇa and tried to convert him to Buddhism. Thence he passed through Cundadvilam and Sārathipura, crossed the Ganges and reached Benares.

v1.c11.40

⁴ *Lal. Vis.*, p. 407. It is recorded here that Bimbisāra, on hearing of this event, exempted all recluses from the payment of ferry-hire. See also Beal, *op cit.*, p 247.

v1.c11.41

¹ For a picture of which, see Majjhima, I, pp. 77 ff.

v1.c11.42

² See, for details, my Aspects, etc., p. 206.

v1.c11.43

³ Lal. Vis., p. 418: मे एष चतुर्वार्यसत्येषु योनिसोमनसिकुर्वतो एवं त्रिपर्वतं द्वादशाकारं ज्ञानदर्शनमुत्पद्यते। cf. Vinaya, I, p. 11 in which the words yoniso manasi kurvato have been dropped, making the idea a bit hazy (imesu catusu ariyasaccesu evam tiparivattam dvādasākāraṃ etc).

v1.c11.44

⁴ Lal. Vis., p. 420

v1.c11.45

³ Lal. Vis., pp. 422 ff.

v1.c11.46

⁴ In the Abhiṣkramaṇa-sūtra (Beal, op cit., pp. 258-386) the life-story is continued further, and includes the following topics:— Conversion of Yaśa and his friends, Buddha's visit to Śrāvastī, stories of the conversion of Pūrṇa Maitrāyaṇiputra, Mahākātyāyana of Avantī, Sobhiya of Takṣaśilā, the three Kassapas, Bimbisāra, Mahākāśyapa, Mahāprajāpati, Bhadrakā, Sāriputra and Mudgalaputra, Udāyi, Upāli, Rāhula, Nanda, Ānanda and other Śakyan youths. All these topics are given also in the Mahāvastu but in a scattered form.

v1.c11.47

In the Vinaya Piṭaka (I, pp. 13-14),² this discourse is followed by another known as the Anattasutta, in which each of the five skandhas has been pointed out as devoid of a self (anattā) and as such they are not subject to the will of the self. Further, they are also impermanent (anicca) and as such they are sources of guel (dukkha). The conclusion drawn from this discourse is that everything is devoid of self (pudgalaśūnya) and one who knows this is said to attain Nirvāṇa.

v1.c11.48

² See also Saṃyutta, III, p. 66: Mahāvastu, III, pp. 337 ff.

v1.c11.49

In the Lalitavistara, the skandhas are spoken of as devoid of self incidentally, but there is no separate discourse on it as is found in the Vinaya Piṭaka. In the Lalitavistara, however, there is an additional section dealing with the Mahāyānic interpretation of the Dharmacakra. It is introduced by Maitreya Bodhisattva¹ to whom the Dharmacakra is explained as the teaching which establishes the oneness of all objects and the absence of any concept, positive or negative, as well as the absence of the origin of so-called things of the world.

v1.c11.50

¹ In the Vinaya Piṭaka, I, pp. 11-12, Koṇḍañña is said to have been the first to obtain the dhammacakkhu.

Linked texts (14)